After years of hard work and dedication to return to the ice after an ATV accident, Mitchell Garrett will don the Maple Leaf for the first time on the international stage
Being a goaltender is in Mitchell Garrett’s DNA. No matter what sport he
plays, he always wants to be the last line of defence.
After playing as a catcher in baseball and a goaltender in soccer growing
up, the Surrey, B.C., product began playing hockey at 10 years old.
“My dad grew up as a soccer player,” Garrett says. “Telling him that I
wanted to switch into hockey was not necessarily the news he wanted to
hear.”
Garrett played between the pipes for 12 years, usually in house league or
occasionally in rep. After high school, he continued to play recreationally
with some of his minor hockey teammates.
“I remember when my accident happened, it was like a month before the new
season started,” the 29-year-old says. “So that was a shock to them hearing
that I wasn’t going to be able to play for them ever again.”
On July 29, 2017, Garrett was camping when he decided to take a friend’s ATV
for a drive. When he didn’t return, a search party found Garrett had crashed
on the side of the road.
He was airlifted to Vancouver General Hospital and diagnosed with a T4
complete spinal cord injury. Despite his prognosis, Garrett progressed
quickly and completed rehabilitation within three months.
“It was a really fast process. I remember everybody telling me this is going
much faster than what it’s typically supposed to,” he says. “I really wanted
to make myself goal-oriented when I was in rehab because I didn’t want to be
there. I just wanted to get going in my life, and I knew it was going to be
a major change.”
Matteo Pellizzari (left), Mitchell Garrett and Brendon Hurst.
Throughout the entire process, hockey was always on Garrett’s mind.
“I don’t remember my injury at all. I woke up in the hospital and I’m like,
‘Where am I right now?’ [They told me I’m] in the hospital, and I was like,
‘Oh, well I have a playoff game tonight, I need to go play hockey.’”
Now paralyzed from the chest down after his injury, Garrett immediately
shifted his focus to how he could get back on the ice and began researching
para hockey.
“I studied [Team Canada goaltender] Dom Larocque. I watched every single
interview I could find of him,” he explains. “I remember watching it three
or four times over and pausing on the on-ice clips,…
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